Breast-collar



(No Model.) I

0..;=T. 0A1N. BREAST COLLAR.

No. 487,604. Patented Den. 6, 18925 WITNESSES //v VENTOH Gain BYMZ A TTORNEYS UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

CORNELIUS T. CAIN, OF OWENSBOROUGH, KENTUCKY.

BREAST-COLLAR.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 487,604, dated December 6, 1892. Application filed April 26, 1892- Serial No. 4=30,'716. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, CORNELIUS T. CAIN, of Owensborough, in the county of Daviess and State of Kentucky, have invented new and useful Improvements in Breast- Collars, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact description.

The object of the invention is to provide certain new and useful improvements in breast-collars whereby the pulling strain is thrown on the animals shoulder proper and the point of the shoulder is relieved from all hinderance, so as to give comfort to the animal and permit it to walk or run with great ease.

The invention consists of certain parts and details and combinations of the same, as will be fully described hereinafter, and then pointed out in the claims.

Reference is to be had to the accompanying drawings, forming a part of this specification, in which similar letters of reference indicate corresponding parts in all the figures.

Figure 1 is a perspective view of the improvement as applied. Fig. 2 is an enlarged plan view of the improvement, the horses shoulders being shown in dotted lines. Fig. 3 is a side elevation of the shoulder-plate, and Fig. 4 is a plan of the same.

The breast-collar A is connected near its rear ends with the neck-strap B and at its extreme rear ends with traces O in the usual manner.

Within the sides of the collar A are an ranged permanently-shaped metallic shoulder-plates D, placed in the sheathing of the collar at the connection with the neck-strap B, as is plainly indicated in Fig. 1. Each shoulder-plate D is bent ed gewise vertically, as at D and has its rear end D inclined downward and rearward from the bend D in order to align with the traces, and the front end D inclines downward from bend D and is also curved inward (see Fig. 2) and terminates at the point of the shoulder, as indicated by the dotted lines I Z. Since the shoulderplates are formed of steel or spring-brass, they will permanently retain'their shape and yet yield sufficiently to be perfectly easy to the shoulder. The collar A assumes at the shoulders the same shape as the plates D, so that it conforms to the shape of the animals shoulders, and owing to the bend D and the particular curvature and inclination of the forward end D all strain on the point of the shoulder is removed and distributed higher up on the shoulder proper. Not only so, but the collar is left perfectly flexible between the shoulder-points where it crosses the windpipe, and thus all liability of choking is avoided and at the same time a much freer shoulder action (with far less friction) is afforded than if a metallic bar extended throughout the length of the collar, as has been heretofore done.

In Fig. 1' I have illustrated by dotted lines how the draft strain is distributed over the entire shoulder instead of at the point of the shoulder only.

Having thus described my invention, I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent-- 1. As a new and improved article of manufacture, the breast-collar herein described, consisting of the leather sheathing or collar proper formed at the juncture of its front and sides with bonds extending upward from the front to the side portions of the collar, the neck-strap connected at its ends with the sides of the collar at points in advance of the rear ends of said sides, and two spring-metal shoulder-plates incased in said sheathing,

said plates being arranged with their forward ends terminating on opposite sides of the middle portion of the front of the collar, whereby said middle portion is left flexible and free of metal bracing, and extending thence back up the bent portion of the collar and rearwardly along the sides and terminating at a point in rear of the connection of the neck-strap, whereby to prevent the connection with the shoulder strap from drawing the sides of the collar out of line, said plates being cut to form the downward bend and bent permanently to conform to the turn of the shoulder at the juncture of the sides and front of the collar, all substan-' tially as and for the purposes set forth.

2. As a new manufacture, the permanentward to conform to the shape of the shoullyshaped springmetal shoulder plate D, der, substantially as and for thepurpose set bent vertically edgewise between its ends, as forth. shown at D the rear end D being inclined CORNELIUS T. CAIN. 5 rearward and downward on a straight line Witnesses:

and the forward end D being inclined or WM. OALLAGHAN, curved downward from the bend D and in- WM. D. MONARCH. 

